


the first and probably the last

by makiyakinabe



Category: Kekkaishi
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person, Pre-Canon, Present Tense, commas are justice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 02:06:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3511205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makiyakinabe/pseuds/makiyakinabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shichirou wakes up to a new day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the first and probably the last

**Author's Note:**

> Written for genprompt_bingo. The prompt is 'The Elephant in the Room'.

In the morning, it's just you and Father. The bowls and plates and cups may be generously spaced out across the tabletop, but despite the grownups' best efforts, it's never looked emptier. Every time you look up from your bowl, your eyes go to the other end of the table, and once you do, you can't help but glance towards the chairs, too. Every one of them are still tucked in, from yesterday by the look of it. For all the times grownups come into and go out of the room, they never look once at them, even when there are other grownups around and they have to move closer to the table, standing in wait for their chance to get to Father or the door.

You turn your head to Father, to see if he's noticed just how strange everything is: he doesn't.  The only things he has eyes for are his breakfast, and the latest grownup who wants to say things into his ear.

 

 

* * *

 

In your lessons, Shijima is acting strange. He says  _young master _ every time he starts a new sentence, and since he's talking much more than usual, that's a lot. If he's not talking about how good you are at something, even if it's just writing out your answers, then he's telling you all the things you should be good at. Most of them go in one of your ears and out the other. He uses a lot of words you haven't heard before, important grownup-sounding ones like  _responsibility _ and  _deserving_ and  _principles_ , and he says them all like he thinks you already know what they mean. You can't decide which you dislike more, the way he keeps singing your praises or this.   


You interrupt Shijima, to ask if he's noticed just how strange he is being: he doesn't. He pushes his glasses up his nose, calls you young master and talks about something else entirely. When you interrupt him with another question, the same thing happens.

 

* * *

 

In your free time, grownups appear whenever you try to leave. They're either going up or down the stairs when they see you, stopand say _young master_.  If they're rather short of breath, you think nothing of it.After all, the only way for them to get where they need is to start from the ground floor, and climb. In the unlikely event that you can't call up the wind, no matter how much you wriggle your fingers, you'll have to go up step by step, too, and will surely sound just like them. You're sorry enough to let yourself be walked back to your room. But not enough to stop. You open your window after coming across one grownup too many, and from there take to the roof, only to find that Father's gotten there first.   


You meet his eyes, to say if you've noticed just how strange this all is, then so should he: he doesn't. Father may be lookingat you for the very first time this day, but when he open his mouth, it's to tell you to go to Mayuka-sama.

 

* * *

  


You wonder if you're the only one who remembers your brothers ever existing.   



End file.
